


cruel professors, studying romances

by surviving_and_thriving



Series: birds of a feather [5]
Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: F/M, M/M, SO SORRY, but like, college au baby!!, i have never once learned how to keep my tenses consistant, let these boys be soft, or how to write a fic with a logical timeflow, send help, the plot slaps so its ok, there is copious amounts of alcohol, this is low-key a band au too, this is so ooc it isnt even funny, whoops, willing suspension of disbelief?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:07:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28212909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/surviving_and_thriving/pseuds/surviving_and_thriving
Summary: neil is hopelessly in love with the man who plays music in the showers every morningwritten for the AFTG 2020 winter exchange
Relationships: Katelyn/Aaron Minyard, Kevin Day/Jeremy Knox, Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard
Series: birds of a feather [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1917226
Comments: 3
Kudos: 93
Collections: AFTG Exchange Winter 2020





	cruel professors, studying romances

**Author's Note:**

> playlist for the fic: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4bbQYW56TYgMB1yCAOEPyi
> 
> please listen while you read for full enjoyment :)

It was the second week of college and Neil Josten was already in love. Okay, so maybe not in  _ love  _ love. But he definitely loved whoever it was who showered at 7:30 a.m. every morning. Granted, he had never actually  _ seen _ the guy who had the best taste in music on this campus, but he was pretty sure that any college student who had both Bowie and Pink Floyd on a playlist that blared every morning religiously was his soulmate. 

Because Neil had spent the first chunk of his life on the road running from his serial killer father, he hadn’t developed a taste, or even really experienced, modern music much, so he tended to like the classic stuff a bit more. Who knew? However, most college students would bump rap in the halls and at parties and Neil always felt like he was missing some huge memo. But not in the bathroom at 7:30. Nope, there he knew every song and every word. In a weird way, it was like being in the car with his mom again, listening to a crackly, static radio blare Blue Oyster Cult while his mother sewed shut a bullet hole. You know, normal childhood memories.

Neil desperately wanted to meet this mysterious man, but just barging into the showers at 7:30 did not seem like the best way to make friends. After all, not everyone liked to be up to watch the sunrise as he did. 

For now, however, Neil was content to listen to the man’s music as he brushed his teeth each morning.

* * *

It was the fifth week of college and Neil has decided that he hated the mysterious man in the bathroom. Okay, so maybe not really. But he hated him right now, seeing as Neil had been up all night working on a physics project and had gotten approximately 48 minutes of sleep. Maybe. If he was being generous. He didn’t have class until 10:00 a.m. and, as of 6:42 a.m., this morning had been planning on sleeping until the absolute last minute. Mr. Shower Man, apparently, had different plans. 

Groaning, Neil tucked his pillow over his ears and tried to fall back asleep. Even when exhausted, he couldn’t hate the guy. He sat up and rubbed his eyes. He wasn’t going back to sleep as long as The Doors was playing.

* * *

It was the ninth week of college and Neil was met with silence when he walked into the bathroom at 7:30 a.m. Disappointed, Neil went about his morning routine in quiet, humming a Beatles song to fill the void. 

Neil couldn’t help but wonder where the music man was that morning. After all, this was the first day of class that the bathroom had been silent. Obviously, no one in their right mind got up before 2:00 p.m. on the weekends. But it was strange to not hear classic rock playing to start his day. 

Neil wondered if the man was ok. Maybe he just went home, he reasoned with himself. There really was no need to get all bent out of shape over someone you’ve never met, he thought. 

Finishing his morning routine around 8:00 a.m., he walked out of the bathroom, only to nearly collide with two somebodies in the hallway.

The taller of the two was hauling ass down the hallway, dragging a much shorter blond beyond him and yelling.

“I swear to  _ god _ , if we are late to this class I am going to forfeit my guardianship rights to you. Why the  _ fuck _ did you turn the alarm off?”

The blond responded by pulling himself out from under the taller one and fixing a glare that stopped the other boy in his tracks.

“I wanted to sleep.”

“You’re killing me. You know that, right? You’re killing your father.”

“We’re gonna be late.”

“Fuck!”

Before Neil could even process anything, the two were out the door, one of them, probably that taller one, calling back a delayed apology to Nei before the door slammed shut.

Neil stood dumbly in the hallway, wondering if he should even try to comprehend what had just happened, before shrugging it off and walking back to his dorm room to get ready for his class. 

* * *

It was the eleventh week of college and Neil was woken up at 3:00 a.m. to a smoke-filled room and the loud beeping of the fire alarm. The R.A. was pounding on his door, yelling at him to get outside. 

Once outside, he immediately started asking questions. He learned that the fire had been started in one of the dorm rooms when someone tried to make Easy Mac and forgot to take the little foil thing off. Neil was thoroughly baffled. Who, at age 18, didn’t know how to make mac-n-cheese? And how could someone manage to not only forget to take the foil off but forgot to put water in at all?

Neil conveniently chose to forget that he had once tried to make spaghetti and had forgotten about the noodles, which led to the water evaporating, and the dry noodles catching on fire. At least he knew how to make Easy Mac.

While contemplating the stupidity of all college freshmen, Neil overheard the hushed conversation between two of the boys he assumed lived in his hall.

“Yo, what the  _ fuck _ ?” A blond, who Neil thought he recognized as one of the boys who had been running down the hall asked the other boy. The boy wasn’t quite right though, but Neil couldn’t put his finger on it. It was three a.m. Figuring out why one of his hallmates had a doppelganger was a problem for the future.

“Honestly, you’re just lucky I realized the stupid thing was on fire. I had planned on grabbing some water while it cooked.” _Ah_ , thought Neil, _this was the guy who couldn't make macaroni._

“Well, thank you for filling our hallway with smoke. Thank you very much for that. Nevermind I have a Biology lecture tomorrow, not  _ this _ , morning. And it’s the last one before our next test. So thank you very much for this lovely night excursion.”

“You’re ever so welcome, Aaron”

“Fuck you.”

Neil wanted to hear more of this argument, both boys sounded like they could trade insults the rest of the night, but the R.A. called them back into the dorm, declaring the hall, thankfully, fire-free.

The two boys continued squabbling all the way back, eventually entering a room three doors down from Neil.

Once again, he thanked his lucky stars he had a single room. He may have murdered a roommate if they set the microwave on fire at 3:00 a.m. Violent tendencies must run in the family. Nature and nurture or some shit.

* * *

It was the thirteenth week of college and once again Neil was met with a silent bathroom when he entered at exactly 7:30 in the morning. Since that morning at the beginning of the semester, Neil had always been greeted with rock music when he walked into the bathroom.

But today, it was strange, and unsettlingly, quiet. 

Until it wasn’t. There was a loud crash from one of the bathroom stalls, and, startled, Neil spun around to see what had happened. He obviously couldn't see much, as the doors were closed, but he could see one very bright pink sock sticking out from under the stall door. 

Hesitantly, Neil walked over and knocked on the door. 

“You alright in there?”

He was met with a retching noise and a small groan. 

“Woah, dude, let me in. You sound like you could use some help.”

Slowly, the door opened and Neil was faced with the sight of a crumpled blond, who he recognized from the ‘Easy Mac Incident,’ as the dorm had come to call that fateful night.

Shaking his head, Neil moved down to help support the stranger. 

“How long have you been in here?”

The man sighed and pushed himself up to his knees.

“Like midnight. I think the caf gave me food poisoning.”

“Midnight?” Neil was shocked, “It’s, like, 7:30. I’m no medical expert, but you should probably be in bed.”

The man on the floor laughed. 

“My brother is a pre-med student and, as I’m sure he would tell me, I should definitely be in bed. The only problem is I can't seem to get up on my own. Nothing like vomiting in a communal bathroom to humble someone.”

“Can I bring you back to your room? You’ve got a roommate, right?” Neil asked, offering his hand to help the other man up.

“Yeah, two of them.”

Steeling himself for movement, the blond grabbed the offered hand and pulled himself upright. Almost immediately he began to sway. 

“Whoa there,” Neil said. “Can I hold onto your arm to help?”

The blond snorted out some semblance of what might be a laugh.

“Fuck. Yeah, okay.”

Neil settled his arm around the shorter boy's neck, which, in itself, was insane. Neil had never met anyone smaller than him who wasn’t a literal child.

The duo made their way out of the bathroom and down the hall, Neil firmly supporting the other man. 

The stranger directed Neil to a door decorated with various musical instruments and the names ‘Nicky,’ ‘Aaron,’ and ‘Andrew’ in bold font. Neil’s own door was frightfully plain, just his name and a few pictures of his guitar and images stolen from NASA’s Instagram account. 

“This is me,” the other man said.

“Anytime,” Neil said, waving off the thanks.

Neil kicked the door a few times, his hands being rather preoccupied with holding the boy from the bathroom up.

The boy who Neil recognized as the one to light the Easy Mac on fire opened the door after a few kicks.

“Jesus fuck, Andrew?”

“Get out of my way, Nicky, I want to go to  _ bed _ .”

With that, Andrew forced himself from Neil’s arms, vanishing into the room behind the boy, Nicky.

Before Neil could walk off, Nicky stopped him.

“Can I at least get the name of the, very attractive, I may add, savior of my very angry little cousin?”

“Neil. Neil Josten.”

“Nicky Hemmick. And you just met the joy that is Andrew Minyard. Sorry about that, by the way. Thanks, for helping him.”

“Tell him to take better care of himself.”

“Oh, I will. Though no promises about me. I want to get saved by someone who looks like you.”

From behind the door, Andrew’s voice, though a bit scratchy, rang out.

“Shut up, Nicky. Close the damn door and leave him alone.”

Nicky smiled as he closed the door and Neil walked away lighter than he had felt all semester.

* * *

It was the sixteenth week of college and Neil was well and truly screwed. No, he was fully fucked. He had three projects due in the next three days and he hadn’t started on a single one of them. He didn’t even have a good excuse. He had been messing around on his guitar and then all of a sudden, the weekend was gone, and so was all of Neil’s time to work on these projects. 

Honestly, he wanted to cry. He wanted, and needed, to do good in these classes, his life literally depended on doing well enough in his classes to help his uncle with his dubiously legal work later, but everything paled when his guitar grabbed his attention. His only saving grace was that he didn’t have class on Mondays, so he could spend all day working on these stupid projects. Shame, there was a concert tonight at one of the college bars he had been hoping to catch. He’d heard the drummer was quite good.

Neil was lying in bed staring at the ceiling, contemplating how convincingly he could fake his death when his 7:30 alarm went off. Sighing, he pushed himself off his bed and dragged himself to the bathroom. Shame too, with his knowledge, he could probably do it almost convincingly enough to get away with it. Stewart would find him out though and he really didn’t need two mob families mad at him. One was more than enough.

He paused outside the bathroom. Instead of classic rock, the man in the shower was singing something Neil didn’t recognize. Neil didn’t claim to know every song ever written, but he was pretty sure that this was an original. And it was good. Neil stood outside the bathroom for as long as he could justify before he pushed open the door. 

The singing stopped as soon as the door opened, and all Neil wanted to do was to tell the man to continue.

Instead, Neil brushed his teeth and washed his face in silence as the shower ran as background noise.

It was the eighteenth week of college and finals were in full swing. This, of course, meant that every student was dying. 

Neil had just left the library for the first time in three days and was in dire need of a shower. Before he could shower, however, he needed to sleep. But he really wanted to get clean. Three days of finals hung on him like a heavy cape and he smelled. But also, sleep sounded so good.

Neil shook his head. He was exhausted, yes, but if he didn’t shower now, he probably wouldn’t be able to find the energy later. 

Neil slipped his phone in a Ziploc bag and turned his music on loud. As he showered he began to relax from the stress of finals. Despite having always been a nighttime showerer, showering in the morning did feel nice. 

His serene shower was broken by the mysterious shower man getting in the second shower at 7:25, on schedule as ever. 

The two boys showered in relative silence, both of them quietly singing along to whatever song was on quietly. Neil laughed a little to himself. Out of everyone on campus, he lucked out enough to live next to the one person with the same music taste as him.

Feeling clean, and a little awkward, Neil exited his shower, after pulling on a shirt and sweats, as the other man exited the other shower.

Neil looked up and locked eyes with Andrew and felt his soul leave his body. Of course, the other man was Andrew.

* * *

It was the second week of knowing who the man in the shower was and Neil had never been more in love. Okay, so maybe not  _ love  _ love, but when he watches the smoke curl up from Andrew’s lips as he breathes out the latest hit from their shared cigarette, Neil can’t think of anything more beautiful. 

His breath catches again when Andrew pulls an old, dented acoustic guitar from under his bed. Andrew messes around for a few minutes as Neil takes the cigarette from Andrew’s mouth and coaxes it back to life.

Suddenly, Andrew thrusts the guitar at Neil with a groan. 

“I can never get the damn thing to, like, make the sounds I want. You have a go.”

And so, an hour later, Neil finds himself laughing along to a bizarre song Andrew seems to have come up with on the spot, accompanying him on the guitar. When Nicky walks in and hits an incredible high note that is perfectly timed, they all lose it, laughing harder than should be possible. Andrew, Neil thinks as he sneaks a look, even cracks a smile.

He never thought college could be this fun.

* * *

It was the fifth week of knowing who the man in the shower was and when Aaron barges into Neil’s dorm room at approximately ass o-clock, Andrew close behind, he isn’t even surprised. Being friends with the blond meant that unexpected visits from both him and his roommates were an expected thing. And it wasn’t like Neil wasn’t up doing homework all night, anyway.

“Neil, why the fuck are you still awake?”

“Why are  _ you  _ still awake?” he retorted, rather cleverly. Hey, it was well past midnight, he didn’t have to be terribly eloquent. 

“God,” Aaron started, “I fucking hate pre-med. I’ve got to drop it before I lose my mind.”

“Why don’t you go ahead and do that then,” Neil stated, finishing off the last equation with a sigh.

“Because I actually do want to be a doctor. And also Andrew said the only reason he’s in college is that I’m here and now I feel responsible for his education.”

Andrew gave a two-finger salute from the doorframe.

“If he goes, I go. Twin shit”

At that, Neil dropped his pencil. Andrew couldn’t leave.

Before he could suggest anything, Aaron pushed himself off the bed and dropped dramatically on the ground. 

“It’s not that I hate the classes, I love it actually, one of my favorite parts of college, truly. It’s the damn math classes I have to take. I suck at math. I got a fucking four on the AP calc test, but this fucking school wouldn’t take my credit,” he got up from the floor with a sigh, continuing, “Anyway, sorry about the intrusion. I’ll just be on my way.”

And just like that, Aaron was gone, leaving only Andrew behind.

Neil peered up at him. 

“Shouldn't you go after him?”

“No. Aaron has this crisis once a week, pretty much. Once he figures out that all he needs to do is get through physics II, he’ll be fine. He just has to work it out on his own.”

“So you, I mean, you and Aaron, aren’t going to leave?”

“Not anytime soon.”

Neil signed, feeling far more relieved than he had any right to feel, before looking up at Andrew and smiling.

“Want to watch a movie? I saw this  _ awful  _ one yesterday. You’ll love it.”

* * *

It was the ninth week of knowing who the man in the shower was and Neil has never felt so lucky in his entire life. I mean really, out of all the students at Palmetto State, he was friends with the one person who actually understood, and more importantly, could explain, physics in terms that Neil could understand. Aaron had apparently taken it for the pre-med requirement and Andrew had helped him study, so now, thanks to his eidetic memory, he knew it. Bitch.

When he met Andrew in the library that afternoon, he was second-guessing his luck. Neil knew Andrew was smart, but watching him fly through problems like they were nothing was incredible. And kind of hot, if he was being honest with himself. Despite the  _ slight _ distraction that was Andrew Minyard, both boys managed to finish the problem set in under two hours, and Neil, miraculously, actually understood what he had just done.

When he tried to offer to pay for the tutoring, Andrew laughed.

“No, dumbass.”

“Can I do anything to thank you? You totally just saved my ass.”

Andrew’s eyes lit up. 

“Can you help me with calculus? I have a test next week and we have to do some shit on conics and my teacher sucks and the textbook is 400$ that I refuse to pay.”

“Yeah! Let me just see your notes.”

Andrew moved closer to Neil, and his breath caught in his throat again.

* * *

It was the eleventh week of knowing who the man in the shower was and midterms were well underway. Neil and Andrew had made a regular practice of meeting in the library to study and help one another and both boys could see the stress of exams weighing down on the other. Andrew’s other roommates, as well as Aaron’s girlfriend, had taken to joining them as well and, as a whole, one or multiple of them had been occupying the study room for over a week straight. Neil is pretty sure Nicky  _ slept _ in here last night.

Neil wasn’t exactly sure when the last time Andrew had eaten a meal was, but it was definitely not in the last 48 hours. Neil also wasn’t exactly sure when Andrew had slept last and he was pretty sure it was nearing two straight days of no sleep. 

But they only had one more final, then they could sleep and eat as much as humanly possible, before having to wake up for class the next week. 

When Katelyn looks up from his book, she looks like she is about to cry. 

“I can’t read worth shit, Aaron. I’m going blind. This is it. My last will and testicle. Wait, testament. Sorry, I’ve been diagraming anatomically correct reproductive organs for the last two hours.”

Aaron immediately starts cooing over her and Neil and Andrew lock eyes, rolling them at his twin and fake gagging. 

Trying for humor, Neil bats his eyes at Aaron.

“You always know just how to turn a lady on. Anatomically correct diagramming of reproductive organs.”

Aaron throws his book at Neil. Neil throws one back. Aaron manages to duck that one, but Andrew’s clips him on the shoulder.

* * *

It was the thirteenth week of knowing who the man in the shower was and getting an entire group of friends in the process, and when Neil walks in to brush his teeth that night, he hears muffled crying.

He walks over to the stall door and knocks, worried about the person inside. When he crouches down to check under the door, he spots a very familiar pair of pink high-tops. 

“Nicky?” Neil’s voice is, he will admit, slightly panicked. 

“Neil?” the disembodied voice asks, “Can you come in?

“Yeah, just let me in.”

The door swings open and Nicky launches himself at Neil. 

Neil simply holds him for a few minutes, breathing slowly, hoping Andrew will mimic his breathing patterns and calm down somewhat. 

“What happened?”

In response, Nicky thrusts an envelope into Neil’s face. 

“My fucking midterm results. I’m too freaked out to open them. What if I failed? What if I get kicked out of school because I’m stupid and they take the twins back? What if I - “

“Calm down, Nicky. You haven’t even opened them yet, right? And you studied hard, there’s no way you could have failed.”

“If I did fail, though, I lose my scholarship and have to move back home and I can’t do that, Neil, I just can’t. Because then I’’ have no income and I won’t be a suitable guardian for the twins”

“You won’t have to.”

“You can’t promise that, Neil. Don’t say things you don’t mean.”

“I wouldn’t let it happen. I couldn’t let you leave.”

“You’re too nice, Neil. I can see why Andrew likes you.”

“Nicky, what?”

“Nothing.”

* * *

It was the sixteenth week of knowing who the man in the shower is and Neil looks at a sleeping Andrew with a fondness he couldn’t imagine feeling a semester ago. 

Sleeping Andrew is much different from awake Andrew. Sleeping Andrew is much quieter and calmer. It feels almost too intimate to be around him. The persona Andrew puts on every day falls off and a small, but passionate, boy is left. 

However, like awake Andrew, sleeping Andrew still talks. Neil had learned from Nicky one night that Andrew would talk in his sleep. He’d respond to questions, never with a coherent answer, and carry on one-sided conversations. It was endlessly amusing. Neil’s personal favorite was the time Andrew had fallen asleep at the library and had shouted “oh fuck!” loud enough to have a noise complaint filed against him.

This particular night, however, Andrew seemed to simply be talking to himself. Andrew had fallen asleep while studying in Neil’s room, and Neil didn't have the heart to wake him. 

When Andrew mumbles a “love you,” Neil can’t stop himself from smiling and giving a “love you, too,” in return.

And if Andrew smiles in his sleep, it’s no one’s business.

* * *

It was the eighteenth week of knowing who the man in the shower is and the end-of-year celebration was in full swing. Neil was more than a little tipsy, but Nicky had blown past tipsy, drunk, and wasted, and was well on his way to blackout. 

It seemed like the entire student body population had decided to go out after the final exam, flooding the only bar downtown that didn’t card. The bar was probably making an insane profit, so the law-breaking must be doing some good, Neil thought.

Neil stumbled up to him, a glass of something suspiciously blue colored in his hand.

“Neil, man, like, I have no idea what’s going on right now. But I have something very important. Something vastly important to tell you.” 

Neil grabbed Nicky’s shoulders to stop him from falling, as he was leaning dangerously to the right. 

“Alright, Nicky, what is so terribly important.”

Nicky’s eyebrows furrowed. 

“Andrew is gonna tell you something tonight. But you can’t tell him that I told you.”

Neil scrunched his face up in confusion.

“What’s he going to tell me, Nicky?”

“Oh no, you’re much too sober for me to say this. Here,” he thrust the blue liquid in his hands, “drink up.”

Neil, who was probably more drunk than he thought, took the drink without hesitation and downed it. 

“Okay,” Nicky yelled, “I’m gonna go dance.”

“Wait,” Neil called out, but Nicky had already disappeared into the crowd. 

Neil shrugged and settled back on his seat at the bar. His favorite party activity was people watching, something he did that night with gusto. Until he saw a familiar blond far too close with another guy, who was laughing and talking and leaning into him.

Neil saw red and stormed out of the bar. He took a second to cool off by the street, but every time he tried to go back in, he was overcome with rage. 

Huh. He was probably  _ really _ drunk if he was getting this emotional over Andrew. Just thinking about the blond with the other man made Neil feel like curling into a ball and crying. Or just vanishing for all eternity. Or fighting. He didn’t really know how he felt. He just knew that it made him  _ feel _ things when he saw Andrew that close with other people, with other guys. 

Neil shook his head, trying to get some form of clarity. Fuck him, his brain decided. Fuck Andrew. 

Neil pulled out his phone and called an Uber. It was only when he was halfway back to campus, he remembered he had gone to the bar with Andrew in the first place. He’d probably find a ride home with someone else anyway, then fuck them for good measure. Whatever Andrew had to tell him was clearly not as important as the guy in the bar.

* * *

It was the second week with no morning music in the bathroom and Neil was glad for the silence. Actually, he wasn’t. He was miserable. And lonely.

The new year and semester had started and Neil had  _ really  _ hoped that fate would smile on his poor excuse of a life and let his room be far, far away from Andrew’s. But, as per usual, Neil’s luck was shit. Not only was Andrew in the same building as Neil, but they were also on the same floor. And, not only were they on the same floor again, they were fucking neighbors. 

Aaron and Nicky had gotten a double as well and were on the other side of Neil, bookending him between people that no longer considered him a friend.

All that meant was that Neil could hear Andrew’s music, but he knew that it was no longer their thing to share. That bond had been royally fucked the last night of last year. And Neil couldn’t even figure out why. He had left, probably a little too soon, but Andrew had staunchly avoided him for the last week of school while everyone had been moving out. 

That avoidance had apparently continued into their sophomore year of school. Despite having not talked all summer, Neil still desperately wanted to be friends with the other man and had gone out of his way to try and make contact with Andrew when he was moving into his room. Neil had tried to help Andrew get some of the stuff to his room, but the blond had flinched away when Neil went to grab one end of his mattress and Nicky had dismissed him with a grin and a wave of his hand as he grabbed the other end. So Neil had left them alone, as he was obviously not wanted.

And, to make matters worse, Andrew was rooming with the man from the bar. Neil guessed he was just  _ that  _ interesting. And Neil was not, he thought with a little (a lot) of jealousy. Neil was, once again, in a single, but he wasn’t nearly as happy about it as he was the previous year.

Neil had never felt more alone.

* * *

It was the fifth week with no morning music in the bathroom and Neil was glad for the silence. It was a little strange, being greeted with silence every time he stepped into the bathroom to brush his teeth and do his hair every morning. Neil had gotten used to Andrew’s music blaring, distracting him from the early hour. But, Neil muses, that seems to have vanished with his and Andrew’s friendship.

Even though he and Andrew lived in the same hall, there had been, in Neil’s opinion, a distinct lack of Andrew for the few weeks they had been back in school. It wasn’t like Neil missed the constant laughs and fun that had come with being friends with Andrew and Nicky (he did). 

So, when Neil walks into the caf for lunch on a gloomy Wednesday and he sees Andrew sitting alone with a bowl of cereal, he is shocked. 

Not because of Andrew eating cereal at one p.m., it was college, everyone has their bad days, but because the other man looked like a totally different person. He was hunched in on himself, and Neil didn’t even want to think about what could have made Andrew, the person with the biggest and loudest personality Neil knew, try to become so small.

He was also alone, which was weird in itself. Andrew was always, always surrounded by other people. Unlike Neil, who detested large crowds, Andrew fed off them.

To see two of what Neil considered Andrew’s defining characteristics stripped away startled and scared him.

Neil wanted to go up to the blond and help somehow, but he didn’t think he had that power anymore.

So Neil left Andrew sitting alone.

* * *

It was the ninth week with no morning music in the bathroom and Neil was glad for the silence. Neil had avoided going out for much of the beginning of the semester, mostly because school was kicking his ass to the moon and back, but midterms had just finished and he was going to celebrate, damn it. It totally didn’t matter that he had probably failed everything, it was over! 

Half an hour into the party and Neil was thinking that he had probably gone too hard too fast. It probably hadn’t been the best idea to try to outdrink his math lab partner right after he did shots with half his diff eq class. But he was having a good time, and the world was moving so fast, but his mind was going so slow, and it was just  _ fun _ . He was having  _ fun _ .

When Neil sees a familiar flash of blond hair across the room, he is too drunk to think properly and decides that right now, right at this moment, is the very best time to talk about the whole situation. 

Plus, his brain supplied helpfully (good to know his brain still works with the amount of alcohol he had consumed), this is the same place Andrew was going to tell him something last year. Maybe, being here will make the blond remember. Because Neil really wanted to know.

But as he tried to get up from where he was sitting, his body decided to tilt to the left and he felt himself falling. A pair of hands caught him and pulled him upright. 

It took a great amount of strength for Neil to make himself look up at his savior (and wow, why are his eyes so heavy now?), but when he finally does, the man from the bar is looking down at him with concern. 

Neil spends an unreasonable amount of time processing this fact and when he finally does, he realizes that the man is asking him a question. Neil decides just to nod and hope it makes sense as an answer.

He sees the man’s eyes narrow in concern and he waves Neil’s lab partner over, presumably to take him home.

He never does get to talk to Andrew and when he wakes up the next day, he doesn’t remember the party at all.

* * *

It was the eleventh week with no morning music in the bathroom and Neil was glad for the silence. Neil had spent a good few days recovering from the post-midterm party and trying to piece together his, admittedly sparse, memories of the night. He literally could not remember anything past finishing his last midterm and taking a celebratory shot with Matt after they walked out of the classroom.

So he was surprised when Andrew and the man from the bar walked into his diff eq class to talk about graduate programs and he had the startling realization that both of them had been at the party. 

The man from the bar smiled at him and Neil prayed to every deity that he could think of that he had said nothing too terribly embarrassing at the party. He had a hazy memory of the man helping him up after he fell, which is not the worst first interaction to have with someone but is very much not the best.

After Andrew and the other man, whose name, Neil learns, is Kevin Day, give their talks on why the math majors should consider graduate programs, Andrew talking about social work and Kevin about history, they stay after the class ends to answer any questions. 

Why they chose to speak to math majors about those graduate programs eludes Neil. But watching Andrew and Kevin joke around, laughing and cracking jokes when no one is looking, the answer becomes clear. To show Neil that Andrew had replaced him with someone better and smarter. 

Someone like Kevin.

* * *

It was the thirteenth week with no morning music in the bathroom and Neil was glad for the silence. He was walking back to his dorm for a much-needed nap after a particularly rough three-hour lecture in his Mathematical Tools for Physics. It was times like this when he was leaving one insane lecture and preparing for another three-hour lab this afternoon, where he doubted quitting everything and becoming a musician as he had always wanted to. He always mentally slaps himself after these thoughts, because he loves math, he truly does. It’s just, sometimes, when he looks at his guitar that he never plays as much as he wants, Neil can’t help but think of bigger things.

He nearly crashes into a tree, lost in his thoughts, and when he safely makes his way around the tree, he sees three familiar bodies walking in front of him. 

Nicky is complaining (at least that hasn’t changed, Neil thinks) about some test that he failed. 

Aaron cuts him off with a question.

“Whatever happened to that dude on our hall last year, Neil? He was decent at math and really helped Andrew. He lives a few doors down from us, why don’t you ask him to tutor you at stats, Nicky?”

Andrew stalls for a second, before speeding up and peeling away from the group.

“Oh, you missed all the drama from last year, Aaron, dear” he pauses for a second before joking, “Plus, he doesn’t deserve this hot bod!”

Aaron smacks the back of Nicky’s head and the two of them speed up to catch Andrew, laughing with a familiarity that makes Neil’s heart ache.

* * *

It was the sixteenth week with no morning music in the bathroom and Neil was glad for the silence. But Neil would be lying to himself if he said he didn’t miss having someone to talk to every morning in the bathroom. Even when Neil hadn’t known Andrew was the guy in the bathroom playing music, he still had company. 

It was a Sunday and Neil had decided that his hair needed a thorough cleanse. He longed for the simpler days when he would straighten his hair, but he recognized that he looked awful with straight hair. He had fully resigned himself to a life of complicated hair routines. 

After a long and lovely shower, Neil emerged to a bathroom full of steam and one Nicky Hemmick. 

When Nicky spotted him, he spun around with an accusing look on his face.

“What on earth is the problem between you and Andrew? The man won’t even speak your name and every time he walks into the room, he stares at that bloody guitar with  _ the  _ most mournful look I have ever seen on a man. And I need it to stop before I kill him.”

Neil physically steps back at the barrage of Nicky’s words, but once he processes what the other man has said, the confusion sets in.

“I thought he hated me?”

“Neil, darling, why would he hate you? Based on his reaction to you not talking, I would place money on him being deeply in love with you.”

“I don’t know!” Neil said, exasperated, “He was going to tell me something at the bar after finals, you  _ told  _ me that, then he left me for some other guy. Kevin, I think.”

At that, Nicky begins to laugh.

“Neil, I love you, and you are so smart, but you are so incredibly stupid. Kevin is our  _ friend _ . Andrew was watching Kevin that night because he warned us that he was going to ball out at the party and too many strange things have happened when Kevin drinks that much to not assign him a babysitter.”

“So he wasn’t replacing me with Kevin?”

“I’m going to murder both of you if this whole thing was a massive misunderstanding and I’ve put up with an emotionally distant Andrew for an entire semester. Then I will bring you back to life just to kill you again.”

Nicky laughs again as he walks out of the bathroom.

“Talk to him, Neil.”

* * *

It was the eighteenth week with no morning music in the bathroom and Neil was glad for the silence. Until, slowly and quietly, Neil began to hear someone with music playing on their phone approaching the bathroom. 

Based on the song selection, he was pretty sure who would be opening the door.

After his talk with Nicky, Neil had been mentally preparing himself to talk to Andrew, but every time he attempted to knock on his door, he was overwhelmed with terror and had to retreat to the safety of his room.

Apparently, Andrew wasn’t the same coward Neil was, because he was opening the door and looking sheepishly inside.

“Neil?”

“In here, Andrew,” Neil managed to say without crying. In all honesty, he was proud of the answer. His voice hadn’t even cracked. That much.

He had missed the sound of Andrew’s voice.

When Andrew fully stepped into the bathroom, the dim hallway lights illuminating his blond hair and a soft song playing in the background, Neil felt like he had stepped into the ending of a famous love movie.

They both spoke at the same time.

“I’m sorry.”

Looking at one another and laughing, and after getting a small nod from Andrew, Neil stepped forward and enveloped Andrew in a hug.

It wasn’t the flashy romantic Hollywood scene anyone would pay money to see on the big screen, but Neil was happy and he hoped Andrew was as well. 

Neil didn’t feel so alone anymore.

* * *

It was the second week after the return of music to the bathroom and Neil could say with total confidence that his life had improved exponentially with the addition of Andrew back into his life. Okay, so life wasn’t  _ perfect  _ perfect, but he was happier with the other man around. An added benefit came in the form of two men, Nicky Hemmick, Kevin Day, and Aaron Minyard. Kevin was, Neil loathed to admit, an amazing person and even better bass player. 

Neil still felt a twinge of jealousy whenever he saw Kevin and Andrew laughing together, as it brought back far too many painful memories of the “Semester That Shall Not Be Spoken Of,” as Nicky had dubbed that unfortunate time.

That jealousy, however, was quickly curbed when Kevin met his new boyfriend and shyly introduced him to the rest of the boys. The love Neil could see in both Kevin and Jeremy’s eyes shut down any thought of Kevin trying to “steal” away Andrew (Andrew was  _ not  _ his property, Neil had to remind himself, they weren’t even dating).

With the reconciliation of Neil and Andrew, the boys quickly realized that they could technically get away with calling themselves a band. 

And so the most dysfunctional band ever formed was created. Initially, there was quite a bit of disagreement with the styles each member wanted to play, with Nicky preferring emotional ballads, Andrew championing rock, Neil being partial to songs with a deep meaning, Aaron’s deep and unrelenting love of early 200s emo, and Kevin’s absolutely horrific and bizarre love of disco.

Eventually,  _ most  _ of the issues were worked out, and all five boys settled on a sound that was more a mix of everyone’s style than one specific style or genre.

With the formation of the band came practice. Lots and lots of practice. Neil knew, on a deep level, that they were all talented musicians in their own right, but,  _ shit _ , they sounded bad when they played together. 

Neil always wanted to speed the tempo up, while Kevin wanted to keep it slower. Nicky, Aaron, and Andrew often just watched and cast bets on who would win. Bastards. 

“It’s rock, Kevin. You can’t just strum at a leisurely pace and expect people to want to dance. You’re playing for the old folks home and I’m playing for people who are actually our own age,” Neil would say and when Kevin started trying to defend the snail’s pace he picked on his bass, Neil would have to fight the urge to strangle him right then and there.

The other thing about playing in a band, especially one with Andrew Minyard at the drums, was how distractingly attractive he was. It was simply not fair that one person could look good when hitting something and Neil was, justifiably, having a hard time focusing on the music when someone who looked like  _ that  _ was just sitting near him.

The rehearsal today was going about as well as anyone could expect. Andrew had almost impaled Kevin with a drumstick he was using to conduct while he played a riff, Neil and Nicky were working on some guitar section stuff, and Aaron was napping. How? Neil would never know. He suspected it was the pre-med trauma.

Kevin abruptly turned away from his almost-murder via drumstick and loudly announced that it was time to try to put a full original song together. They had come up with a few songs, nothing concrete, and had never attempted to play them all the way through. Fear, Neil guesses, that the song won’t be as good as anyone wants it.

But when Kevin puts his mind to something, that thing will happen. And so the five men assembled to play one of their own songs.

Andrew counted them off and they launched into a rough rendition of their song. 

Honestly, it wasn’t nearly as bad as Neil had expected it to be. Sure, it was rough, but it was a song and it wasn’t bad.

When they finished, there was a pause then a scraping sound as Nicky leaped behind the drum kit and wrapped his arms, first around Andrew, then inviting Aaron, Neil, and Kevin to join. 

They could do this.

* * *

It was the eleventh week after the return of music to the bathroom and Neil could say with total confidence that he was feeling more than a bit unsure about all of his life choices. Midterms had snuck up on him, Andrew, Kevin, Aaron, and Nicky with frightening speed and they were all suffering. Why the fuck did he think that putting off his studying for the sake of working on a new guitar bit for a song was okay? Neil, apparently, but he was deeply regretting the decision now, as he sat in the library, staying at his textbook, but not retaining anything.

Currently, Neil was in the library, debating whether or not it would be appropriate to launch himself out the window, thinking that even if the fall was not enough to kill him, it could hurt him enough to get out of his exams. This probably wasn’t the  _ best _ way to deal with stress, but no self-respecting college student has proper coping mechanisms.

He decided to shut his eyes for a “quick” nap and the next thing Neil knew, he was jolting awake to the sound of someone calling his name. 

“Neil?”

Neil raised his head slightly at the call, not looking up from his hunched position over a stack of papers, a post-it note stuck to his cheek that comprised of equations. Someone had entered his den of studying and that was punishable by death, or at least death glares. He had a schedule to be keeping to, and dumping bodies could not be accounted for within his 30-minute ‘leisure’ time.

“What the fuck,” he responded articulately. 

Andrew appeared in his line of sight, shaking his head. 

“It’s only me, you know, the only person who would know that you’re still awake at 2:00 in the morning.”

Running a hand through his hair (it probably looked like a mess, but he couldn’t bring himself to care), Neil brushed off the comment and waved to Andrew absentmindedly.

Andrew fell into the chair next to him, muttering in a way that would rival any crazy person.

“I’m doomed. It’s more painful than expected to try to learn a semester worth of material in one night.”

“No shit, Neil.”

“Does math count as a language? Can I say I’m bilingual because I speak in code?” Neil continued, ignoring Andrew’s insult. 

“No, but it should. I took Intro to Binary last semester and I was ridiculously close to putting it on my resume as a secondary language.”

“I’m never going to remember all of this by Wednesday,” Neil looked at his phone, before exclaiming, “Oh, shit, it’s already Wednesday. Technically.”

Andrew leaned over and delicately peeled the sticky note of the cheek of the despairing boy, looked at it, and asked, “Would this help?”

Grabbing it, Neil, peered at it and said, “I’ve been looking for this formula for over an hour, I thought putting it on myself would make me remember it more easily. You know, like osmosis.”

“You mean diffusion. Osmosis is the diffusion of water.”

“Shut up, Mr. I-remember-everything-because-I-am-perfect-at-everything.”

“Anyway, Neil,” Andrew said, swatting at Neil’s head, “I’m heading back to the dorm, and I’m here to make you come back because you are not allowed to stay here all night.”

Andrew offered his hand and Neil took it. 

He tried to not think too much about the fact that Andrew didn’t drop it once they were walking.

He failed.

* * *

It was the eighteenth week after the return of music to the bathroom and Neil could say with total confidence that this had been the best semester of his college career to date. Finals had come and gone, and by some miracle, he passed them all with flying colors. The music he was making with his friends was improving, they were playing little gigs now at local bars, and they were getting some attention from record labels. No one had signed them yet, but Neil was just happy to be making music. 

The band, which they had named Foxes, a demand of Nicky (because we’re all so  _ foxy _ , guys, get it?), had been invited to play the end of year party at the same bar everyone went to at the conclusion of the semester.

The gig had gone surprisingly well for how drunk all five boys were before they even got on stage. After they finished playing, they quickly packed up their gear, eager to join the actual party and reward all the hard work their brains had done by absolutely wrecking their livers.

Neil was anxious, seeing as how this was the very party, exactly one year ago, that he had royally fucked up his relationship with Andrew. Neil was very interested in  _ not _ doing that this time around.

Neil was also nervous because being at this bar brought up memories of Andrew’s unfinished confession. Neil liked closure and not knowing had been bothering him for a full year.

But Neil was not about to let any anxiety ruin this party. He had finished his sophomore year and he was going to celebrate.

The band did a few rounds of shots before drifting their separate ways into the party. Kevin liked to go dance. Nicky would find someone fun and disappear until tomorrow morning. Aaron would outdrink everyone then somehow find his way to Katelyn's and show up tomorrow looking like he lost a fight with a vacuum. Neil liked to people watch. Andrew would usually join either Aaron (for the drinking part, not the battle with cleaning supply part) or Neil, depending on his mood. Tonight he stayed put next to Neil. 

Both boys were already very drunk, so Neil didn’t freak out as much as he usually would when Andrew leaned his head on Neil’s shoulder. 

Andrew’s hands came up to play with Neil’s hair, twirling each curl around his finger before letting it drop. 

“Pretty.”

“Pardon?” Neil asked.

“Your hair. It’s pretty.”

“Oh,” Neil wasn’t sure if he could blame the red color on his cheeks on alcohol, but he was going to anyway, “Thanks, ‘Drew.”

“You’re pretty.”

Neil is fairly certain that his heart stopped beating for a full minute.

“Thanks, ‘Drew.”

Neil was trying to play off how flustered he was. It wasn’t working very well.

Andrew suddenly jolted upright, as if shocked by lightning.

“I never told you what I wanted to tell you last year,” he turned to Neil, distressed, “I never told you and you probably forgot all about it.”

“It’s fine, Andrew. Really.”

The blond looked far more sober than he had a minute ago and his eyes were filled with determination.

“Well, I’m gonna tell you now. And I don’t want you to panic and think that I’m only saying this because I’m drunk. I know you, Neil, and I know that’s exactly what you would do. I’m just going to come out and say it, ‘cause I’m terrified that if I don’t say it now, I never will.

“I like you. I like you as more than a friend. I think you’re fun to be around and I’m happier when I’m with you. I understand if you hate me now and never want to talk to me again, but I couldn’t just never say it.”

Neil was stunned into silence, then, before his brain caught up to his body, he opening his mouth.

“Can I kiss you?”

“Yes”

And then he was kissing Andrew. He was  _ kissing Andrew! _

It was messy and everything Neil had ever wanted.

**Author's Note:**

> ayo whattup im like two days late but my whole laptop broke so i had to wait til it got fixed i am so so sorry
> 
> hope yall enjoy and have a litty holiday season ily u all


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